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Denham Springs mayor addresses drainage concerns

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DENHAM SPRINGS - Denham Springs mayor Gerard Landry is fighting back over resident's complaints that the city is not doing enough to solve drainage issues that bubbled up again after a quick downpour led to limited flooding there last week.

"We're trying to put together a long-range plan to improve drainage in the city by improving the size and quality of the culverts that are out there in addition to working with the parish," said Landry.

Denham Spring's drainage issues caused major problems after last years flood and continue to cause water logging after heavy rain. We asked Mayor Landry why it has taken this long to address the issue.

"I wish I could tell you. This has been a problem for many, many years. I just took office two and a half years ago. I can't just snap my fingers and address maintenance issues that may have happened a long time ago. All I can address is what's happened since I've been here,"

The issue exploded again last Friday when water backed up into Denham Springs high school, opening up fresh wounds about the drainage problems.

Comments left under the city's Facebook post about the plan contested the city's claim that it had already cleaned out 257 drains

One resident saying :"I saw no work being done anywhere"and another agreeing: "Me neither"

But Landry says they are out there.

"If they would look out their doors and windows like this past Saturday and Sunday we were out there for 12 hours both days. Work is being done I can assure you,"

He showed us a map of the city with 400 pins in different locations, marking sites with drainage issues.

"We have documentation if you look at the records we have kept, we have dates and times and photographs of all the 257 that we've actually cleaned. We've found over 100 and something that actually have damage that we have to go back and repair, and I think if you look at that map you'd see 400 different sites that we have looked at,"

Others on the post praised the city's efforts, saying "This is a good start"

The city says cleaning and repairing the remaining 143 drains could take up to 18 months.